"PSD"

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

"Pitching, speed and defense" is the once-again mantra for the Omar-Jerry Mets, according to the Snooze article this morning. The lead is about how they've decided against moving fences in and overblown by Rubin suggesting Wright will never again be a power hitter, but the interesting thing, to me, is the idea that PSD is suddenly important again, meaning no Muffy or Sheff as outfielders, and perhaps, an effort to attract pitchers based on the stadium dimensions.

Some expert quoted in the article suggests Wright lost 8 homers this year to citifield, but they turned out to be 2 triples, 4 doubles, 1 single and 1 out instead. That's a difference of 25 points in his Slugging %, not an especially big whoop.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Meanwhile Wright has only hit 3 homers on the road all season. I know the article tried to spin that as a Citi Field effect too, but that seems like a bit of a stretch to me.

That aside, I like pitching, speed, and defense too. But I don't like going into September with only one player with as many as 10 home runs. I'd hate to think (and I'm not at all convinced of this yet) that the Mets play in a park where it's impossible for one of their guys to have a 30-home run season.

[Centerfield]

Move the fences in. Give me a uniform, 8 foot wall at the same dimensions of Shea.

[metirish]

Detroit has a big park and they seem to have had success with a blend of PSD. I think too as the season progressed CF played good for sluggers.That article mentioned about how Wrights sweet spot for homers is to right center which at CF is huge...in spots a lot bigger than at Shea.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I like PSD too. The thing is, I think they've had it and still lost. My offseason priortites are leftfield, catcher, rightfield, and first, with one of those outfielders hopefully able to slide to first if F-Bomb or somebody comes along.

I have no problem if they want to bring back a healthier version the same-ish pitching staff.

[Frayed Knot]

Detroit has a big park and they seem to have had success with a blend of PSD.

[soupcan]

Don't forget (and really, how could we?) that Delgado hasn't played all year. I'd like to think that he would've had more than 10 homeruns this year. Beltran would've had more than 20. Wright had hit a few right before he got hurt.

I'm good with leaving the field as is, having a slugger at first, and having speedsters ion the outfield.


Pitching, speed and defense. What a novel idea.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'm good with leaving the fences where they are also, but not good with their heights.

[Fman99]

Detroit has a big park and they seem to have had success with a blend of PSD. I think too as the season progressed CF played good for sluggers.That article mentioned about how Wrights sweet spot for homers is to right center which at CF is huge...in spots a lot bigger than at Shea.[/quote:aw2lvwtm]

Agreed, they moved their fences in considerably.

Hopefully, at the least they lower the fences. It makes for more exciting defensive play anyway as more guys are trying to "bring a ball back into play."

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I kind like the park as it is too. A lot of the impressions over it being a relentless power-sucker came from early in the year, when Shea played extra big too.

[Guest attgig]

not a huge fan of the bullpen still. they finally got some cameras in there, but having them kinda hidden and what not is a bit annoying.

also not a huge fan of the RF divot thing. just seems like they made it to make it different vs any real baseball reason or even asthetic reason... (or was it to increase advertisement space?)

[smg58]

The park is not the problem.

This year's Mets have been overstocked with guys who simply can't hit home runs anywhere. Castillo, Cora, Steve Reed, Cory Sullivan, and Anderson Hernandez have 2 HR's between them as Mets (Hernandez had one with the Nats). If defense was supposed to make up for it, someone needed to tell Minaya that Castillo and Cora (as a shortstop) have been below average for several years, and as a shortstop Anderson Hernandez has never even been average. Reed and Sullivan don't play center when Pagan is in the lineup, which means their defense isn't good enough to make them assets. Plus, the most important role for National League reserve players is to pinch hit. I was actually encouraged by the potential pickup of Chris Carter; putting a masher (at least in the minors) with a dubious glove on next year's bench would be a huge breath of fresh air (and would make the team better if the alternative is more of Steve Reed).

Also, efforts to get guys like Church, Murphy, and Tatis to strike out less have resulted in them being far less effective hitters. I'm not sure if that was the players' doing or Howard Johnson's, but if it is a function of the team's hitting philosophy then the philosophy has to be thrown out the window.

That being said, I have no problem with pitching and defense. That shouldn't preclude pursuing Roy Halladay or Matt Holliday, of course.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

My peeve with the fences is the wall sticking up in front of the apple. That's totally unnecessary, and if they don't want to take it down a line should be drawn to bring the HR level down to match the adjacent fences.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Well of course they're not gonna move the fences in next year. It costs money to move the fences in, doesn't it?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Welcome back, BML.

[Frayed Knot]

This year's Mets have been overstocked with guys who simply can't hit home runs anywhere. Castillo, Cora, Steve Reed, Cory Sullivan, and Anderson Hernandez have 2 HR's between them as Mets

To be fair, only one of them was supposed to start and only 2 even began the year as ML Mets.


I suspect there may be some minor, mostly cosmetic, changes to the fences but nothing major.
They should fix the visiting pen and a few other spots but I doubt we're going to see any overhauls.
The growth in front of the apple is needed to hide the apple since it's in the batter's view - and I hate "HR lines".

[Benjamin Grimm]

I don't like painted home run lines either.

But the panel that shields the apple should have been set back so that it was behind the outfield wall, not a part of it.

[Methead]

My peeve with the fences is the wall sticking up in front of the apple. [/quote:3vy8gbks]

Completely agree. I've thought (to myself) since the beginning, they could have just moved the apple back a few feet, and the wall could just continue across in front of it at a uniform height.

It's more of an aesthetic concern for me rather than anything else though.

[ashie62]

My peeve with the fences is the wall sticking up in front of the apple. That's totally unnecessary, and if they don't want to take it down a line should be drawn to bring the HR level down to match the adjacent fences.[/quote:27ss84gz]

That "tall wall" in front of the apple belongs in a minature golf course.

It shouldn't hit the apple and win a free round.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I see the topic "PSD" pop up and I wonder which fool has taken performance-sagging drugs.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I think of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.